A study on difficulties in toeic reading comprehension for non english majored students at industrial university of ho chi minh city graduation thesis faculty of foreign languages

INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------ GRADUATIONTHESIS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN TOEIC READING COMPREHENSION FOR NON-ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENT

INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

- -

GRADUATIONTHESIS

A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN TOEIC READING COMPREHENSION FOR NON-ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO

CHI MINH CITY

STUDENT NAME: LE MINH THIEN PHUC

MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

- -

GRADUATIONTHESIS

A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN TOEIC READING COMPREHENSION FOR NON-ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO

CHI MINH CITY

STUDENT NAME: LE MINH THIEN PHUC

MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Supervisor Name : Dinh Thi Hoa M.A

Student’s declaration: I declare that this graduation report is entirely my own work and does not

involve in plagiarism or collusion It also has not been accepted as part of a submission to another purpose else where I accept heavy penalty for any cheating or plagiarism

Date submitted : 09/06/2021

Signed : Le Minh Thien Phuc

Word count : 8000 words

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the difficulties faced by the non-english-majored students of Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh city in reading comprehension The purposes of the study were to find out the difficulties faced by students who are not English-majored in TOEIC reading

comprehension and resolution for those challenges The method applied was descriptive

quantitative, where the questionnaire were used as the instrument data collection methods The test consisted of 15 question items divided into three types of questions, which were vocabulary Index difficulty and percentage were used to analyze the data The result of the test showed that the majority of the first year students of IUH found difficulties including answering main idea, making inference, and locating reference questions The most difficult aspect that encountered by the students was finding main idea questions, because the located main idea was difficult to find

In addition, based on the students’ responses in questionnaire, they mostly got difficulties in understanding vocabulary, poor mastery of grammar, the difficulty in understanding long

sentences, lack of media learning, less support from the family, lack of knowledge of strategies in reading comprehension

Keyword: TOEIC Reading, Reading comprehensive, Student's difficulties

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research has, in many senses, been accomplished with the help and encouragement

of many people Therefore, I would like to express my deepest and humblest gratitude also

warmest appreciation to the following people

First and foremost, I would like to send my deepest gratitude to my ever supportive supervisor, Ms Đinh Thị Hoa M.A for her valuable guidance, constructive advice, and

unconditional support during the time I tried to complete this thesis

I would also express my huge thanks to all of my lecturers at Faculty of Foreign

Languages, Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City as their invaluable lectures and guidance laid the foundation for the fulfillment of this thesis

I would also like to show my gratefulness to my colleagues who spent a great deal of time discussing some of the issues related to my research, offering their insights and perspectives as well as my students at Vietnam Maritime University in data collection process using survey questionnaire and semi-structured interview

TABLE OF CONTENT

2.3 Type of TOEIC Reading comprehension difficulties 10

1.1 For students who are non-major in English language, what are their

difficulties in learning TOEIC Reading Comprehension? 29 1.2 How to improve the difficulties perceived by the non - English major

students at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in TOEIC Reading

A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN TOEIC READING COMPREHENSION FOR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH

NON-CITY

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale:

When you want to know clearly about costume and culture of any country, first of all, it's necessary

to understand about the language of that country As you recognize, today about 2/3 countries within the world use English as their maternal language So English doesn't only become popular but it's also a main international language

In recent years, our economy is standing on the common development to integrate with countries everywhere the planet in order that English is getting more and more popular it's been taught in many general- educational schools we all know that teaching English is extremely important, many teachers, doctors are researching to seek out the teaching methods Which are the simplest for learners? To the teachers, generally and therefore the English teachers especially choosing appreciate methods suitable for the skills of scholars are vital

TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) has been the worldwide standard for measuring English skills of business Nowadays, quite 4.5 million people annually take TOEIC to advance their careers

And, for quite 25 years, TOEIC test scores have helped thousands of Corporations, educational institutions and governments throughout the planet recruit, hire, and promote the foremost qualified candidates

So the studying English for taking TOEIC is extremely important and necessary, a minimum of the beginners who often get difficulties in one among all types of TOEIC skills like Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking As this paper will show the study on the difficulties in studying TOEIC Reading of non - English majors at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City

1.2 Research Aims and Research Questions:

As above introduction, this study carry the hope to find out the difficulties perceived by the non - English majors at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in TOEIC reading at beginner level; the ways to improve Reading skills, and also to support students who are learning English to pass the difficulties in Reading To achieve this aim, the process of researching is guided by the following main research questions:

1 For students who are non-major in English language, what are their difficulties in learning TOEIC Reading Comprehension?

2 How to improve the difficulties perceived by the non - English major students at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in TOEIC Reading Comprehension ?

1.3 Scope of the study

There are many various material resources and researches while my personal experience is restricted Therefore, during this graduation paper, we want to specialize in finding the difficulties

in studying TOEIC Reading of non - English majors at beginner level at Industrial University of

Ho Chi Minh City and a few implications while teaching and studying this skill

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Reading

1.1 The definition of Reading

Reading is a multifaceted process involving word recognition, comprehension, fluency, and motivation Learn how readers integrate these facets to make meaning from print (By Diane Henry Leipzig (2001)

Reading is making meaning from print It requires that we:

• Identify the words in print – a process called word recognition

• Construct an understanding from them – a process called comprehension

• Coordinate identifying words and making meaning so that reading is automatic and accurate – an achievement called fluency

Most people consider reading as an easy, passive process that involves reading words during a linear fashion and internalizing their meaning one at a time But reading is actually a really complex process that needs an excellent deal of active participation on a part of the reader

To get a far better sense of the complexity of reading, read what some experts within the field have said about the reading process:

• Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game It involves an interaction between thought and language Efficient reading does not result from precise perception and identification

of all elements, but from skill in selecting the fewest, most productive cues necessary to produce guesses which are right the first time The ability to anticipate that which has not been seen, of course, is vital in reading, just as the ability to anticipate what has not yet been heard is vital in listening - Kenneth Goodman in Journal of the Reading Specialist (1967), p 126

• Literacy practices are almost always fully integrated with, interwoven into, constituted as part of, the very texture of wider practices that involve talk, interaction, values, and beliefs – James Gee in Social Linguistics and Literacies (1996)

• What do we read? The message is not something given in advance or given at all, but something created by interaction between writers and readers as participants in a particular communicative situation - Roy Harris in Rethinking Writing (2000), p 254

2 How to improve the difficulties perceived by the non - English major students at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in TOEIC Reading Comprehension ?

1.3 Scope of the study

There are many various material resources and researches while my personal experience is restricted Therefore, during this graduation paper, we want to specialize in finding the difficulties

in studying TOEIC Reading of non - English majors at beginner level at Industrial University of

Ho Chi Minh City and a few implications while teaching and studying this skill

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Reading

1.1 The definition of Reading

Reading is a multifaceted process involving word recognition, comprehension, fluency, and motivation Learn how readers integrate these facets to make meaning from print (By Diane Henry Leipzig (2001)

Reading is making meaning from print It requires that we:

• Identify the words in print – a process called word recognition

• Construct an understanding from them – a process called comprehension

• Coordinate identifying words and making meaning so that reading is automatic and accurate – an achievement called fluency

Most people consider reading as an easy, passive process that involves reading words during a linear fashion and internalizing their meaning one at a time But reading is actually a really complex process that needs an excellent deal of active participation on a part of the reader

To get a far better sense of the complexity of reading, read what some experts within the field have said about the reading process:

• Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game It involves an interaction between thought and language Efficient reading does not result from precise perception and identification

of all elements, but from skill in selecting the fewest, most productive cues necessary to produce guesses which are right the first time The ability to anticipate that which has not been seen, of course, is vital in reading, just as the ability to anticipate what has not yet been heard is vital in listening - Kenneth Goodman in Journal of the Reading Specialist (1967), p 126

• Literacy practices are almost always fully integrated with, interwoven into, constituted as part of, the very texture of wider practices that involve talk, interaction, values, and beliefs – James Gee in Social Linguistics and Literacies (1996)

• What do we read? The message is not something given in advance or given at all, but something created by interaction between writers and readers as participants in a particular communicative situation - Roy Harris in Rethinking Writing (2000), p 254

As you can see, reading involves many complex skills that need to stick together in order for the reader to achieve success for instance, proficient readers recognize the aim for reading, approach the reading with that purpose in mind, use strategies that have proven successful to them within the past when reading similar texts for similar purposes, monitor their comprehension of the text in light of the aim for reading, and if needed adjust their strategy use Proficient readers know when unknown words will interfere with achieving their purpose for reading, and once they won't When unknown words arise and their meaning is required for comprehension, proficient readers have variety of word attack strategies available to them which will allow them to decipher the meaning

of the words to the extent that they are needed to realize the purpose for reading Reading is additionally a complicated process therein proficient readers give to the text as much as they take they create meaning from the text by using their own prior knowledge and experiences Proficient readers are constantly making predictions while reading they are continuously anticipating what

is going to come next Their prior knowledge and experiences with texts as well as with the world around them allow them to try and do this It is this continuous interaction with the text that permits readers to form sense of what they are reading

1.2 Purposes of reading

The purposes of reading refer to readers’ aims and objectives Therefore, different readers may have different purposes in their mind with the reading text in their hand According to Ruiqi (2007), basically there are two main reading purposes including reading for getting information and reading for pure fun or enjoyment

Grabe and Stoller (2002), however, divided reading purposes into seven subtypes which are more specific: reading for search for simple information, reading to skim quickly, reading to learn from the text, reading to integrate information, reading to write, reading to critique the text and reading for general comprehension

1.3 Reading comprehension

Sedita (2001) claimed that reading comprehension is the ability to determine meaning from text It

is a complicated, interactive process where readers construct meaning based on information they get from the text combine with their own knowledge Gough and Tunmer (1986) supported that reading comprehension is actually a process of decoding According to the RAND Reading Study Group, reading comprehension is the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language which entails 3 elements: the reader who doing the comprehending (bring his own capacities, abilities, knowledge and experiences), the text to be comprehended and the activity (the purposes, the processes, the consequences)

2 Reading TOEIC Test

2.1 TOEIC Test

The TOEIC test (Test of English for international communication) is an English proficiency test for people whose language is not English It measures the everyday English skills of individuals

working in an international environment The scores indicate how well people can communicate in English with others in business, commerce, industry, etc The test does not require specialized knowledge or vocabulary beyond that of the one that uses English everyday work activities

2.2 The format of TOEIC Test:

The TOEIC test is a two-hour multiple-choice test that consists of 200 questions divide into two sections:

Listening comprehension section: there are 100 listening comprehension questions administered

by audiocassette There are four types of questions You will listen to a variety of statements, questions, short conversations and short talks recorded in English, and then you will answer the questions Approximately time is 45 minutes

Reading section: there are 100 reading questions, consisting three types of questions You will read

a variety of materials and respond at your own pace to questions based on the content of the materials Total time is 75 minutes

In TOEIC reading section, there are 100 multiple-choice questions which take 75 minutes Reading score scale ranges from 5 to 495 (Examinee handbook – Listening & Reading, 2012, p.2) TOEIC reading test is divided into three parts including incomplete sentences, text completion, and the last one is reading comprehension

Part 5- Incomplete Sentences has 30 sentences in which test-takers are asked to select the best answer to complete the sentence, then mark the letter (A), (B), (C), or (D) on their answer sheet Regarding part 5, 30 questions are presented to test learners’ grammar and vocabulary extensively Part 6- Text Completion consists of 16 questions in which there will be 4 texts and 4 questions for each text In this part, test-takers are asked to select the best answer to complete the text (type of questions and the way to do are as same as part 5)

Part 7- Reading Comprehension includes 54 questions in which there will be 29 questions in single passages Test takers will only read advertisement, form, letter, e-mail, fax, memo, table, index, chart, instruction, or notice separately There are 25 questions in multiple passages which are 2 set-based double passages, 3 set-based triple passages, 5 questions per set The test-takers, in this part, must choose the best answer among four for each question

2.3 Type of TOEIC Reading comprehension difficulties

2.3.1 Vocabulary

2.3.1.1 The topic of vocabulary

According to a study by Long Pham Duc, vocabulary is one of the participants' most noticeable challenges Interestingly, 83,33% of participants said that language regarding economics was their largest challenge, whereas more than half said they had trouble with language regarding health It can be deduced that words related to economics and health produced significant difficulties for the participants The technology-inclined respondents may not be accustomed to reading mergers,

invoices, or clinics Furthermore, a high majority of those interviewed reported having a limited range of TOEIC vocabulary for two main reasons To begin with, their general English vocabulary was limited Contrary to the researchers' predictions, the TOEIC test participants more than three years later have a large number of common basic vocabulary Second, they have no topic-oriented vocabulary learning strategies and use these vocabularies to practice reading In short, it is recommended that participants improve their basic vocabulary before taking the time to learn vocabulary related to economics and health

He also proposes that a large number of students had “a poor range of vocabulary about economics, technology or travelling although they are economic-majored or technology- majored students” Thus, enhancing the students’ vocabulary range is very crucial because according to Beglar and Hunt (2005), vocabulary is the “central component” or “the heart of a language” in getting insight into foreign language

to learn than other words First, learners often make mistakes when using synonyms, because some

of them may be effectively substituted in some cases, but not in other cases

“The text with synonyms was read more slowly than thetext containing word repetition, and the diference becamelarger as the degree of synonymy lessened Readingtime increased by 9 percent for strong synonyms and 15 percent for weak synonyms - a remarkable finding giventhe fact that in a two-page text not more than ten words were varied Synonyms have a positive effect

on attractiveness, but a negative effect on reading time and comprehensibility.” (Leonoor Oversteegen & Carel van Wijk, 2003)

From the over definitions, we are able see that synonym have a genuine impact on the reading comprehension and continuously make it troublesome for students to reading process

“The text with synonyms was read more slowly than the text containing word repetition, and the difference became larger as the degree of synonymy lessened Reading time increased by 9 percent for strong synonyms and 15 percent for weak synonyms - a remarkable finding has given the fact that in a two-page text, not more than ten words were varied Synonyms have a positive effect on attractiveness, but a negative effect on reading time and comprehensibility.” (Leonoor Oversteegen

& Carel van Wijk, 2003)

From the over definitions, we can see that synonyms have a genuine impact on reading comprehension and continuously make it troublesome for students to the reading process

2.3.2 Difficulties with reading skills

Students who lack reading strategies often cannot understand the text, and students who are not familiar with reading strategies (such as skimming and scanning) feel frustrated and frustrated because they lack the tools needed to succeed in reading comprehension tests (Duarte, 2005) Students lack the characteristics of using reading strategies One is that students use phrases to read phrases in the text, and they rely too much on visible information, which obviously affects reading speed and comprehension; the other is that students pay too much attention to details, and the results are often ignored Important concepts of text Third, they pay too much attention to the form

of meaning Here are some reading skills that are often challenging for readers to practice:

2.3.2.1 Skimming

Grellet (1999) stated that skimming means glance rapidly over a text to get the gist of it It means skimming is used to build students confidence and an understanding that it is possible to gain meaning without reading every word in a text Skimming assists the readers to understand the main idea of the text before reading it carefully Students can do skimming in several ways such as reading the title or the other heading and look at 10 the picture, reading the first and the last paragraph of the text (Islam and Steenburgh, 2009)

2.3.2.2 Scanning

Scanning is that the ability to browse a text quickly to search out specific info that's required sort

of a date, a figure, or a name, and ignore overall unimportant info Grellet (1981) conjointly definite that scanning suggests that glancing speedily through a text to look for a particular piece of data

2.3.2.3 Extensive skill

As per Brown (2001), broad perusing is completed to accomplish an overall comprehension of a passage In broad perusing, the perusers customarily go up against a more drawn out content When perusing, the perusers require an amount to a comprehension of making Long and Richards (1987) recognize broad perusing as happening when the understudies read a lot of high-premium material, focusing on importance, perusing for significance, and avoids obscure words In this manner, the targets of broad perusing are to fabricate the perusers' self-conviction and fulfillment

2.3.2.4 Intensive skill

As per Macleod (2011), concentrated perusing activities may incorporate taking a gander at principle thoughts versus subtleties, understanding what the content infers, making derivations, taking a gander at the request for data and what it means for the message, distinguishing words that associate one plan to another and recognizing words that show the change starting with one area then onto the next Serious perusing is an itemized investigation and is by and large controlled in

a more limited content A peruser generally wants to get some specific data

2.3.3 Time management

Time management is a skill that every student should not only know, but also apply A lot of university students complain about running out of time when asked to do a certain task, they get frustrated because they are not able to make it before the deadline Time management is extremely important, especially when it comes to university students because it will boost their grades and enhance their productivity (Laurie & Hellsten, 2002)

The effectual utilizing of time and managing time requires procedures and good quality planning behaviors One can make use of time effectively and competently by keeping time logs, setting immediate and long- standing goals, prioritizing responsibilities, constructing to-do lists and arrangement, and organize one’s workspace, as studies of earlier period and plentiful how-to books proposed (Sabelis, 2001) Time saving techniques and behaviors can be categorized into numerous groups and be liable to contribute to a number of fundamental qualities in general There are three surfaces of time management behaviors: short-range planning, long- range planning and time attitudes (Laurie & Hellsten, 2002) Short-range planning is the capability to set out and systematize responsibilities in the short period of time Long-range planning competence is to handle everyday jobs over a longer time perspective by keeping follow of significant dates and setting objectives by putting adjournment (Alay & Koçak, 2003)

2.4 TOEIC reading comprehension strategies

As in all reading comprehension exercises, a variety of skills are required to deduce the right answer These include skimming, scanning, paraphrasing, and understanding vocabulary in context Readers must be able to identify synonyms and implied information A clue is that the order of the questions follows the order to the information in the reading passage

Lougheed (2007b) suggests that reading skills such as “skimming, scanning, using the context and reading fast” should be practiced sharply to enhance reading comprehension He goes on to add that a competitive tip is to “read the questions before read the passage” (Introductory Course, p.151) It might be inferred that when readers have a particular question in their mind, they can read fast and purposefully Furthermore, TOEIC examinees “do not read the answer before they read the passage” (Lougheed, 2007a, p.151) It may be understood that when test-takers master each reading question, they should find the answer in the passage instead of looking for answer options (A), (B), (C), (D) after each question It can be seen that Lougheed (2007c) reveals that TOEIC examinees should find not only direct answer but also “synonyms, paraphrases, and implied answers” (p.170) It is not enough without mentioning four main question types: “main idea questions, detail questions, inference questions and vocabulary questions” (Lougheed, 2007a, p.151) which readers are highly recommended to prepare for the new TOEIC test

According to www.masterthetoeic.com, one of the most important skills readers will need to develop for the TOEIC is Skimming - this will help readers with many Questions in Part 6: Text Completion and Part 7: Reading Comprehension, especially with Inference Questions Skimming means to quickly look through a Text, focusing only on certain words These words give you an understanding of the general information or ideas in the Text The key to Skimming is to NOT READ every word

Instead, focus on the following kinds of Key Words:

• Subject or Object of each sentence

• Action Verbs (i.e., verb that describe a clear action, such as “delete”)

• Helping Verbs (i.e., verbs such as “need to”, “can”, or “will”)

After they have chosen Key Words from an Answer Choice, go to the Text Take their pencil and run it across the sentences of the Text, moving from one word to the next in each sentence Their eyes should follow just behind the pencil as it moves over the words

As they move the pencil, be looking for the Key Words, or synonyms of the Key Words, from the Answer Choices When you find a Key Word from an Answer Choice, look for Key Words from the Question–are they nearby? If “Yes”, then that is probably the correct answer

Another strategy is time management (time limit strategy) Good time management is essential

when taking tests such as TOEFL, TEFL, etc It is especially true of the TOEIC test The time limit strategy is the easiest way to improve TOEIC score The strategy involves planning how much time test-takers should spend on each question and limiting yourself accordingly

For example, if test-takers had a 10 minute test with a total of 10 questions and each question was worth 1 point, they should spend about 1 minute on each question If they spent 9 minutes doing the first question, they would have less than 1 minute for the other 9 questions!

By not wasting time on the hard questions, test-takers should have time at the end of the test to come back and do the rest It is possible that you may even find hints for hard questions further on

in the test This strategy is best applied to the TOEIC Reading section

Forster et al (1997, p.129) continue to reveal that reading the questions with carefulness is the first step followed by predicting possible correct answers The second step comes to information-

identifying skills In “Strategies 1: Building TOEIC/TOEFL test-taking skills”, it is pointed out

that the questions asked may not impose as the orderly information in the text In addition to that, from my teaching experience, I agree with such researchers in term of wrong answers in TOEIC

reading comprehension which may be resulted in by choosing “too general, too vague or too specific” answers (p.129)

As Forster et al (1997) recommend, answers B and C are the two most popular answer to questions

in TOEIC, so it is worthy to advise students to mark B or C when they have no idea for the answer

to a specific question Moreover, these researchers suggest that when students encounter a new word which they have not seen before, it is better to depend on surrounding words in the sentences for guessing the new word in the context

2.5 Summary

To sum up, this chapter provides different current theories of both reading and sources of reading difficulty in order to give a clear overview on the matter of the study The following chapter will deal with the methodology with which the study was conducted

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN

1 Research context

This study was conducted at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City At IUH, students have to take part for a TOEIC-test which includes Reading and Listening comprehension for the final examination Therefore, in each English class, normally ranging from 45 to 50 students per class, there is a mixture of different students- that means students came from different departments and levels of English To make the situation better, FFL held the placement test to classify students into different levels Low proficiency students took part in TOEIC Level 1 that TOEIC score ranged from 200 to 300, high proficiency ones did in TOEIC Level 2 that TOEIC score ranged from 350 to 450 At the end of 50 classes, they are asked to sit for a full TOEIC- based test

They must get scores of 450 as one of the conditions to graduate To meet the requirements for a TOEIC 450 course, students should be at intermediate level of English in order to catch up with advanced curriculum However, the English abilities of students are different, using strategies is the most effective way to get the score The subject is mainly taught in formal settings according

to the nationwide course distribution

at elementary level whose current TOEIC band scores ranged from 200 to 300, attend TOEIC Level

1, the other 50 were at intermediate level whose TOEIC band scores ranged from 350 to 450, attend TOEIC Level 2 The band score 450 was then considered as the level border line

3 Research Methodology and research methods

reading comprehension which may be resulted in by choosing “too general, too vague or too specific” answers (p.129)

As Forster et al (1997) recommend, answers B and C are the two most popular answer to questions

in TOEIC, so it is worthy to advise students to mark B or C when they have no idea for the answer

to a specific question Moreover, these researchers suggest that when students encounter a new word which they have not seen before, it is better to depend on surrounding words in the sentences for guessing the new word in the context

2.5 Summary

To sum up, this chapter provides different current theories of both reading and sources of reading difficulty in order to give a clear overview on the matter of the study The following chapter will deal with the methodology with which the study was conducted

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN

1 Research context

This study was conducted at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City At IUH, students have to take part for a TOEIC-test which includes Reading and Listening comprehension for the final examination Therefore, in each English class, normally ranging from 45 to 50 students per class, there is a mixture of different students- that means students came from different departments and levels of English To make the situation better, FFL held the placement test to classify students into different levels Low proficiency students took part in TOEIC Level 1 that TOEIC score ranged from 200 to 300, high proficiency ones did in TOEIC Level 2 that TOEIC score ranged from 350 to 450 At the end of 50 classes, they are asked to sit for a full TOEIC- based test

They must get scores of 450 as one of the conditions to graduate To meet the requirements for a TOEIC 450 course, students should be at intermediate level of English in order to catch up with advanced curriculum However, the English abilities of students are different, using strategies is the most effective way to get the score The subject is mainly taught in formal settings according

to the nationwide course distribution

at elementary level whose current TOEIC band scores ranged from 200 to 300, attend TOEIC Level

1, the other 50 were at intermediate level whose TOEIC band scores ranged from 350 to 450, attend TOEIC Level 2 The band score 450 was then considered as the level border line

3 Research Methodology and research methods

Research methodology and methods:

In the process of investigating the difficulties in learning TOEIC Reading of non-English majors , researchers chose quantitative approach Research method:

Creswell (2006) defines quantitative approach as follows: A quantitative approach is one in which the investigator primarily uses positivist claims for developing knowledge (i.e., cause and effect thinking, reduction to specific variables and hypotheses and questions, use of measurement and observation, and the test of theories), employs strategies of inquiry such as experiments and surveys, and collect data on predetermined instruments that yield statistical data

Babbie (2010) states quantitative approach as: Quantitative research methods emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques Quantitative research focuses on gathering numerical data and generalizing it across groups of people or to explain a particular phenomenon

Quantitative research advantages:

• Larger sample: A broader study can be made, involving more subjects and enabling more

generalization of results

• Objectivity and accuracy: Few variables are involved as data relates to close-ended

information

• Faster and easier: Data collection can be automated via digital or mobile surveys, allowing

thousands of interviews to take place at the same time across multiple countries

• More cost effective: The cost of someone participating in a quant survey is typically far

less than in a qual interview

With those benefits of quantitative approach the researchers chose this methodology for the study

The questionnaire is used to collect the data from student In order to help the participants to

understand the questionnaire completely, Vietnamese was used

Questionnaire:

A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions for the purpose of gathering information from respondents Questionnaires can be thought of as a kind of written interview They can be carried out face to face, by telephone, computer or post

Questionnaires provide a relatively cheap, quick and efficient way of obtaining large amounts of information from a large sample of people

Data can be collected relatively quickly because the researcher would not need to be present when the questionnaires were completed This is useful for large populations when interviews would be impractical - McLeod, S A (2018)

Advantages of questionnaire:

• They can be economical This means they can provide large amounts of research data for relatively low costs Therefore, a large sample size can be obtained which should be representative of the population, which a researcher can then generalize from

• The respondent provides information which can be easily converted into quantitative data (e.g., count the number of 'yes' or 'no' answers), allowing statistical analysis of the responses

• The questions are standardized All respondents are asked exactly the same questions in the same order This means a questionnaire can be replicated easily to check for reliability Therefore, a second researcher can use the questionnaire to check that the results are consistent

4 Data analysis

120 copy of the questionnaires with 15 questions in each copy were randomly distributed to two classes having students from different levels The reason to deliver such number of questionnaires was to eliminate the invalid ones and get back 100 most comprehensible ones, and to avoid losing the questionnaires made by the students

On the day of giving questionnaires, the researcher asked for the help of the teachers teaching those periods to deliver the papers to the students after introducing the purposes and explaining some necessary information in case of having any problems The reason to let the teachers help send out the questionnaires was that under the “authority” of the teachers, students would complete the papers seriously and avoid any unexpected situations

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCISSION

1 Findings:

Question 2: Which skills in English that you like most?

• They can be economical This means they can provide large amounts of research data for relatively low costs Therefore, a large sample size can be obtained which should be representative of the population, which a researcher can then generalize from

• The respondent provides information which can be easily converted into quantitative data (e.g., count the number of 'yes' or 'no' answers), allowing statistical analysis of the responses

• The questions are standardized All respondents are asked exactly the same questions in the same order This means a questionnaire can be replicated easily to check for reliability Therefore, a second researcher can use the questionnaire to check that the results are consistent

4 Data analysis

120 copy of the questionnaires with 15 questions in each copy were randomly distributed to two classes having students from different levels The reason to deliver such number of questionnaires was to eliminate the invalid ones and get back 100 most comprehensible ones, and to avoid losing the questionnaires made by the students

On the day of giving questionnaires, the researcher asked for the help of the teachers teaching those periods to deliver the papers to the students after introducing the purposes and explaining some necessary information in case of having any problems The reason to let the teachers help send out the questionnaires was that under the “authority” of the teachers, students would complete the papers seriously and avoid any unexpected situations

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCISSION

1 Findings:

Question 2: Which skills in English that you like most?

In this chart, we will talk about the English skills that are most loved by freshmen and

sophomores Speaking skill won half of the votes from students, it can be easily said that it is the most popular skill in English Next, Listening and Reading skills ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively with 38% and 35% votes Finally, the skill with the least votes is Writing with only 20% of the votes

From this table, we can see that the skills most students choose Listening and Speaking skills set because they are easier to learn and can be said to be used more when applied in practice

Meanwhile, the Reading and Writing skill sets are chosen less because they require more

concentration and are less interesting in the learning process

38

49 35

Question 3: Have you ever taken a TOEIC examination before?

4.2 Whether the students understand the format of TOEIC

Number of times students take the TOEIC test Looking at this chart, we can see that more than two-thirds of students have taken at least one TOEIC exam and up to 36% have taken the exam more than once Meanwhile, the number of students participating in any TOEIC exam only accounts for 22% From that, we can see that TOEIC is a very popular test used to assess the English ability of people at IUH in particular and Vietnam in general

However, this number could also indicate that more than two-thirds of students failed to pass the assessment and had to re-apply - even multiple times This is a very worrisome thing when

TOEIC is a general competency assessment based on basic knowledge

Question 4: How often do you run into these difficulties?

4.3 The frequency of the students when they come up against difficulties in Reading Section

The frequency of the students when they come up against difficulties in Reading Section

In this 4th question, we can see that students' difficulties when doing the Reading section of the TOEIC test are spread across 3 areas In which, the part that students have the most difficulty with is vocabulary, followed by Reading skills and time management when doing the test

Through this, we can understand that most of the difficulties come from the vocabulary part of the test and that the students still have many shortcomings in their Reading comprehension skills when taking the test, besides that time management is also important when there are quite a few students who have problems in this This part will be answered in detail in Chapter 5

Vocabulary Reading skills Time managing

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Question 5: What do you think about…

4.4 How students think about the challenging level of TOEIC Reading Vocabulary and their synonym

In this 5th question, we will go into the vocabulary and synonyms section of the Reading test In this chart, we can see that both vocabulary and synonyms have a large number of students having problems

First, in the vocabulary section, the number of students who find this part Difficult and Very difficult is very high, accounting for nearly 50% of the total Next is the number of students who feel the vocabulary is at Neutral level - neither too difficult nor too easy, this number is about 45% Finally, the number of students who felt that the part of the Reading test was either Very Easy or Easy was very low, less than 5% of the total

The parameter in the 2nd column shows the difficulty level for synonyms In this section, the percentage of students who find it difficult and very difficult is higher than the vocabulary

section, with nearly 10% of students finding it very difficult while that number in the vocabulary section is less than 5% Next, we can clearly see that the ratio between the difficulty level and the

the synonym using in question

Very easy Easy Neutral Difficult Very difficult

Neutral level has changed differently from the vocabulary part, in this synonym section the Difficulty level has increased higher than the Neutral level In addition, the number of people choosing Easy and Very easy remained less than 5% of the total

Question 6: Which under topics that you usually have challenging when doing TOEIC test? 4.5 The most difficult topics according to non-majored English at IUH

In this chart, we are going to talk about topics that test-takers often have difficulty with within the Reading section of the TOEIC test Observing this chart, we can divide it into 3 groups of topics, group 1 is the common topics in life - Accommodation, Restaurant, Entertainment, and Tourism Group 2 are topics that are less common and more difficult: Office, Human Resources, and Health The last group is the topics that are rarely encountered in real life and the highest

difficulty level, which is: Economy and Technology

Through this, we can see that TOEIC's Reading is spread out on many topics in life from easy to difficult with a diverse and general vocabulary range The topics that students choose the most difficult are the topics they have little exposure to and require more academics than other topics

Question 8: How do you feel about these Reading skills?

4.6 The students think about difficult level of different skills in Reading Comprehension

It can be seen that here - 4 Reading skills, there is a pretty big difference when voted on by the students in difficulty While Scanning and Skimming skills have a fairly high number of Easy and Very Easy votes, with about 30% for Scanning and about 35% for Skimming As for the two skills Guessing and Inferring, this number drops to about 10% for Guessing and 13% for

Inferring

Meanwhile, at 2 levels of Difficult and Very Hard, the votes are increasing steadily in order of Skimming - about 15%, Scanning - about 22%, Guessing at 42% and finally Inferring with more than 45% It can be seen that for students in the Reading test of TOEIC, the two skills Guessing and Inferring are very difficult, these are also two skills that require critical thinking and

judgment during the test If we lose focus or deduce a little inaccurately, we will likely lose points on that question

However, the skillset Skimming and Scanning is equally important because these are the main skills for us to identify the points, the main points of the lesson from which we can find the answer to the question Despite the lower number of Difficult votes, for many students this is still

a huge problem for them and they need a solution to fix it

Question 9: How often do you eliminate the answers according to vocabulary, phrase or

meaning?

4.7 The frequency students eliminate answer by guessing the meaning

Here we dive into the analytical skillset Guessing and Inferring - in question number 8 above Here, when asked how often you exclude answers in your answer based on the vocabulary, the sentence, or the sentence's meaning Up to 54% of the students said that they only do it

sometimes Next, about 34% of the students voted Always Finally, there are Rarely and Never votes with votes of 7% and 5%, respectively

This is very beneficial for students when doing the test, in the question most of the time there will

be an answer that is out of the reading and sometimes wrong for the question When reading the

answers, knowing these things will help us do the test a lot easier because we have eliminated the wrong answers before we read the reading, besides it also helps us save money homework time However, there are still questions to which we cannot eliminate the answer but must read the article to find the answer, so we must carefully read the answer before deciding whether to

remove it or not Although we do not eliminate the answer, we will save time when we have analyzed the important points of the answer and we only need to focus on those points in the passage Therefore, it is very important to read the answer and analyze it when doing the test, so

we need to do this regularly to improve our chances of getting points

Question 11: What do you think about the length of TOEIC Reading Comprehension Section? 4.8 1 How learner at IUH feel about the length of TOEIC Reading Comprehension Section

In the diagram above, we can see another difficulty for students when doing the TOEIC Reading test, which is the length of the reading When surveyed, a total of 65% of students answered that the Reading Comprehension section was too long for them Meanwhile, only 28% felt that the length of this section was adequate and 7% of the students answered that it was Short for them Here we can see the problem that most of the students are not used to reading long passages and this directly affects their performance This will also affect the time taken by candidates when

they are not used to long reading passages and the amount of time they spend on this reading section will take up a lot more than expected

Question 12: What is the most time-consuming when doing a test?

4.9 The most time-consuming when students doing a Reading test

Besides vocabulary and reading skills, an equally important part of reading passages is time management Through the data analysis table above, we can see, in the process of taking the reading test, which items are the candidates wasting their time on

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Finding main idea

Trying to investigate answer for challenging question

Trying to translate a complicated word

First, the part that candidates think they waste the most time on is trying to focus on a difficult question - with more than 50 people voted Next with about 42 choices is to find the main idea of the passage And finally trying to explain a difficult word that I don't know with 38 votes

Through the above parameters, we can see the problem that when doing the reading test, the candidates do not know how to apply the skills of doing the test quickly and that makes them spend a lot of time doing their own test

Question 13: How much time do you take to practice Reading Comprehension Skills?

4.10 The time practicing Reading Skills of freshman and second year students at IUH

2 - 3 hours/week More than 3 hours/week

The table above shows how much time students spend practicing reading skills Most of the students only practice when there are hours at school, accounting for 40% of the total Next, about 24% of students spend 2 to 3 hours a week practicing And the same percentage is the number of students who spend up to 2 hours practicing on their own Finally, the number of students who spend more than 3 hours per week practicing reading skills is only 12% In short, the student's practice time is not expected

quantity to understand and answer questions But, students are often too focused on the

vocabulary instead of grammar or main content in reading texts Students said that any texts have many new words, they are all difficult Therefore they are often afraid of reading long texts In addition, there are many synonyms in the reading passage, which means that students need to understand the meaning of the original word and at the same time have to remember other words that have the same meaning This is a huge challenge for students and they need a good

vocabulary strategy to remember these synonyms

Students themselves ―limited perceptual span, it means they still use word-by-word reading; they depend on too much in Vocabulary If the quantity of theory is more than the quantity of practice, it is hard for to students gain Teacher should give students several exercises students practicing match with theory Students are mentioning Vocabulary; the level of learning material must be suitable for the beginner The teacher should make a variety of kinds of exercises both old and new kinds of exercises from easy to difficult for students to gain as much as possible in learning

2.2 Reading skills

Because of beginning from low level so almost all students are not good in English skills such as listening, writing, speaking as well as reading comprehension skills Consequently, students get some problems in this sector The skills are not used expertly in a reading text Students have not

a thorough grasp of methods and skills during reading comprehension texts They only focus on new words not keep in mind the content of the reading text They agreed that reading

comprehension skills are important but they do not know how to learn and use them in reading comprehension exercises Students often do not focus on skills such as scan, skim and guess correct or incorrect choices Especially in Guessing and Inferring skills, students face a lot of